


Hair like dirt, but eyes like the ocean

by Shinosuke



Series: The Raven Cycle - Alternate Universes, because I can [2]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Merman, Basically Adam grows a fishtail when he gets wet, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Child Abuse, H2O - Just Add Water AU, I will have him explain that at some point, M/M, Merman!Adam, Noah is being a little piece of shit and I absolutely love him for that, Slow Burn, Starts during late The Raven Boys
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-20 12:51:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11921304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinosuke/pseuds/Shinosuke
Summary: Adam was usually too busy being a nerd about useless information to notice. Today he was too busy staring out the window and tapping the end of his pencil against his lower lip, probably fighting the urge to chew on the already deformed little eraser attached to it. Ronan had never caught him chewing on his pencil during class and he was sure that no one else at Aglionby had.Suddenly, Ronan realized what was off: Adam wasn’t paying attention to their teacher. He rather stared into the rain like he wondered if his parents’ trailer would make a good boat and they’d have sailed off by the time he got home today.-----------------Basically it's an episode of H2O - Just add water in the middle of Henrietta and starring a boy who simply doesn't have the time for this shit. I blame this work on my friend Ritsu entirely, as she picked the Merman-AU for me to write.I'll add tags on the way, I guess.





	1. Rain

Ronan Lynch was distracted. Considering that he sat in the middle of an extraordinarily boring lecture about the French Revolution, this was neither new nor surprising, but still he felt like something was off about today. He let his gaze wander from the messy blackboard and what used to be some kind of timeline, that had gone completely out of control, because obviously the teacher had underestimated how much space it would really need, to the window. Usually he had a perfect view of the parking lot and his beautiful BMW waiting there for him, but today the rain was so dense, that he could hardly make out the cars parked closest to the classroom.

He huffed out a bored sigh and started doodling into his notebook. This was going to be a long day, even more so because Gansey had called their planned trip to Cabeswater off during the last break. The weather would probably not change and it would be no use today, so they agreed on Nino’s after school. Adam had hestitated like he always had, probably double-checking if his budget allowed another day of diner-pizza.

Ronan resisted the urge to shake his head over Adam’s stubborn refusal of any kind of gift, pizza and Chinese takeout included. He lifted his gaze from the half-hearted car he’d drawn by now and looked at Adam, who never noticed when Ronan started staring during class – no matter if it were the hostile glares when Gansey had first introduced Adam into their very exclusive group of friends or the doubtful stares when Adam had told them he had fallen off his bike, down the stairs, from his chair at home… or even the recent looks of unfamiliar wonder at the huge questionmark that was Adam Parrish.

Adam was usually too busy being a nerd about useless information to notice. Today he was too busy staring out the window and tapping the end of his pencil against his lower lip, probably fighting the urge to chew on the already deformed little eraser attached to it. Ronan had never caught him chewing on his pencil during class and he was sure that no one else at Aglionby had, but the pencil did have bitemarks. Adam was too careful to let it slip so easily, when he was nervous. Too concerned with making the best impression to show it so obviously in class and trying not to let any bad habits slip in a school full of bad habits dressed in expensive uniforms.  
Suddenly, Ronan realized what was off: Adam wasn’t paying attention to their teacher. He rather stared into the rain like he wondered if his parents’ trailer would make a good boat and they’d have sailed off by the time he got home today. Ronan started to gather more information on that anomaly, which finally gave him something to do until their last bell would ring.

Even though summer was almost there, Adam wore his long uniform. Usually that meant, he was covering bruises on his arms, mostly on his wrists, where his father had grabbed him too hard, but Adam had shoved the sleeves up halfway, his delicate wrists lacked any bruises. Why the long, hot pullover then? He recognized Adam’s concentrated look, the crease between his brows, like he was focusing on an intense algebra-problem. Was this still about getting pizza? Their original plan was to be out until the evening, so Adam would surely have told his parents he wouldn’t be home for dinner. He couldn’t call them about his change of plans and ask to include him and even if he could, his father would probably just take that as another reason to make his evening hell, so why would he?

It was still hard to believe that going to Nino’s would be literally eating at Adam’s budget that much, considering that the pizza was really cheap, but he had once witnessed Adam putting back an eraser at the supermarket, so he could buy toothpaste. He had made sure that Gansey hadn’t seen it and when he had caught Ronan’s eyes on him, he had quickly moved on to the register. Ronan had never brought it up, but it made him feel like he had a better understanding of how Adam Parrish worked ever since.

Maybe, what was keeping him from focusing on the lesson was that without the Cabeswater-trip, he would be home earlier. Neither Gansey, nor Ronan had invited him to tag along to Monmouth after Nino’s, the offer was usually just out there without anyone verbalizing it and Adam was long past the “Can I come to your home after school”-point in his friendship with Gansey. He just went. 

A sudden movement caught Ronan’s attention. Adam had seemingly snapped out of his thoughts and remembered to take notes that he would need for studying. He doubled over and reached into his bag for a ruler. Ronan rolled his eyes, but then realized that the bag was probably not waterproof. He could only guess how much the books for Aglionby costed, because Declan forced them on him, but he was sure their worth was way beyond toothpaste and an eraser. So, Adam might be worrying that his books and notes wouldn’t survive his way home from Nino’s like that?

Come to think of it, Ronan recalled how Adam had been completely out of breath when he had stormed into latin class earlier, roughly ten minutes before class had even started. He had made it just in time before the rain had started, while most of their classmates had been drenched on the short way from the parking lot to the schoolbuildings. Maybe he really was worried over his bag? It made sense and Ronan liked the idea of having him figured out. For the rest of the lesson, he continued the car in his notebook and kept a knowing eye on Adam, to look for anything to prove his theory, but there were no further clues.

When the bell rang, the rain had not stopped and Adam looked at the window a last time before meeting up with Noah, Gansey and Ronan in front of the classroom. “Okay, let’s go. Adam, get your bike, we’ll load in the trunk of the Pig.”, Gansey decided, but Adam hesitated.

“You know… Maybe I should stay, use the free hours to study in the library.”, Adam slowly said, as if he was making the words up just now, while Ronan was sure that he had already figured out what to tell them during the lesson.

“Oh.”, Gansey said, clearly caught by surprise. Noah nodded like he’d expected that and Ronan could swear that the dead fucker knew more than him. “Okay? I didn’t know you were so far behind with your preparation for the exams. I’m sorry for keeping you so distracted during your free time.”

Adam clearly surpressed a sigh, while Ronan marveled at Gansey’s speed when it came to blaming everything on himself. “No, it’s not that!”, Adam was equally quick to answer. “But we’re so close to waking the Ley Line and things might get a little hasty in the near future, so I’ll just use all the chances I get, you know? Just go ahead, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Gansey wasn’t done. He eyed Adam’s long sleeves, like Ronan had earlier. “Adam… After you’re finished, you can come meet us at Monmouth, okay? We won’t take too long at Nino’s and.”

Ronan cut him off, everything in Gansey’s voice and the way that Adam shoved his hand through his hair screamed “There’s gonna be an argument in five, four, three…” at him. “Alright, Dick, cut the knight in shining armor-crap and go get your rusty steed, I’m starving. Parrish will be fine, right?” He shot a meaningful look at Adam. The hesistant, thankful smile, that bloomed on Adam’s face felt like a victory to Ronan. He had read him correctly, he thought.

“Right. I’ll work now so I can take some time off when we actually make that trip we planned for today.”, he said with a practiced careless shrug, he must have picked up at Aglionby.

Gansey nodded and they left Adam behind to run through the rain to their cars.


	2. Aquamarine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We’re still down for a boardgame- or movie-night, you know?”, Noah said, when he was finished transforming his fingers into debris, bouncing off the table and splattering all over Gansey’s salad. “Adam doesn’t work late on Fridays and I think, Blue would also come over, if Adam or I ask her.” Ronan cackled out a mean laugh at the fact, that neither he nor Gansey would be a good argument for Blue to join them.
> 
> \---------------------------------
> 
> Movie-night at Monmouth, open beverages and a baby Raven who just started flying. What could happen?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, uhm, thank you?! I have never before recieved SO MANY positive reactions to a fic before and you guys telling me how excited you are about this (and that after a chapter in which literally nothing happened except for Ronan staring at Adam! xD), is pretty much the only reason, that I have not only already finished a second chapter, but also am already uploading it.  
> I thought, I'd get you used to me being slow and shit, but damn, that is SO incredibly motivating!!!
> 
> So thank you for each and everyone who left kudos and/or even a comment! I seriously hadn't thought so many people were as down for this as Ritsu and I were, but it's really the best thing, that you are!
> 
> Also: I'm pretty sure, I messed up the timeline a little? Like with them already knowing that Noah is dead and Chainsaw just recently starting to fly? Let's just file this under "This is an AU", okay? xD Thanks. And now: Enjoy me getting lost in group-conversations over multiple pages and Noah being an adorable little piece of shit <3

Adam hadn’t been to school the next day. Gansey shot Ronan a concerned look, trying not to attract Whelk’s attention, which Ronan didn’t give a damn about. “I’m no wiser than you are, stop looking at me like it’s my fault.”, he said and that earned him a dramatic cough from their teacher.

“Mr. Lynch, is there anything you would like to share with the class?” Whelk looked at Ronan like he waited for him to start a fight. Gansey looked at him like he knew he would start a fight and begged him not to.

“Nope, private convo. Keep boring the rest of these douches.”, Ronan growled. Gansey buried his face in one hand and made a noise that sounded like shattered hopes and dreams. A little like Declan’s voice usually sounded when he was talking to Ronan.

Ronan held Whelk’s gaze for a moment, the whole class watching their stare-off, until Whelk gave up with a frustrated sigh. There was no use lecturing a raven boy, he of all people would know that, and there was even less use lecturing Ronan Lynch. He’d made sure all teachers knew that by now. Ronan could swear he’d heard Whelk mumble “I’m not getting paid enough to deal with this shit.” under his breath before he actually continued his lesson like there hadn’t been an interruption.

“Was that really necessary?”, Gansey whispered.

“No, but it was fun, wasn’t it?”, Ronan answered, still not bothering to lower his voice.

“Clearly, we still have a very different understanding of humor.” With that, Gansey turned around to pay attention to the poor guy in charge of teaching Ronan Lynch something. After all, he also should take notes for Adam.

 

\----------

 

“Maybe we need a break.” Ronan looked up from tugging at a loose thread at his jeans, to look at Gansey, who had just burst out this thought during their lunch break at the cafeteria. Noah seemed distracted with a very serious attempt to assemble all the spoons he could grab in a triangle, so only Ronan was left confused, but since Gansey didn’t explain without being asked to, he shrugged and decided to only hear what he wanted to hear.

“Now? Good idea. Let’s get the hell outa here.”, he said and raised from his chair, but Gansey grabbed his arm and pulled him down.

“That’s not, what I meant.”

“You don’t say.” Ronan scoffed. “Enlighten us: What do we need a break of, if not this horrible waste of time?”, he asked, leaning back with a dramatically big gesture like the waste of time he referred to was his empire and not the school he hated more than anything else.

“Everything, maybe? I’ve been thinking… Adam was right, yesterday. Once we wake the Ley Line, things may very well get a little …crazy.”

Ronan stared at him for a reasonable amount of time, before he deadpanned: “Because crazy is something, we could definitely not handle.” Noah giggled. “And since when are you not all fangirly about getting closer to Glendower?”

Gansey didn’t take the bait. “Oh, I am! Excited, that is. But I feel like I’m asking too much of you guys. This is my … quest and I’m dragging you all along without thinking about-“

“Ugh, wow.”, Ronan let out as irritated as humanly possible.

“What?” Gansey was clearly not prepared to be interrupted in his probably rehearsed speech.

“Dick, you’re not dragging anyone. We’re all in this together now- Don’t you dare!”, he shot at Noah, who looked ready to get full-on High School Musical in the Aglionby Academy Cafeteria. Noah sank back into his chair, pouting. Ronan almost felt bad. “My point is: We’re doing this with you, you’re not just doing this with us. You’re not gonna start doubting that because Parrish was busy yesterday. That doesn’t count, he’s always busy.”

Gansey took a moment to obviously compare Ronan’s words to the rest of his speech and when he settled on an answer, it was at least a compromise.  “Thank you. Partly. But that only proves that I need to make sure that we all get a break from time to time. Just so we can breathe.”

“This IS what you breathe. Has always been.” Ronan’s words made Noah look up from pouting, which helped Ronan believe he was on the right track with this. “I have -as you like to point out every fucking time I do something quote “stupid”- far too much free time on my hands and Noah… Well, he’s probably not the best example of someone who needs to breath.”

“Hey!”, Noah tried to protest, but Ronan didn’t let him.

“You’re dead, deal with it! The only one of us, who could really use a break, is Parrish and I sure as fuck don’t wanna be around either of you, when you tell him, that you want to delay your holy quest of hide and seek because of him.”

Even if he had looked almost offended not even a minute ago, Noah rushed to take his side. -ish. “And if Ronan has figured out that this is not about all of us, but just about Adam, then HE will, too. He’s smart, you know?” Ronan decided to let this implied insult slip by, because it was supporting his cause and because Noah was right. Finally, Gansey seemed to accept that.

“You’re probably right.”

“Hell yeah, we are.” Ronan un-crossed his arms to hold his fist out for Noah to bump it, which he did with adorable enthusiasm, mimicking an explosion with his fist afterwards and providing a surprisingly realistic audio-imitation. Ronan didn’t, but Noah didn’t care.

“We’re still down for a boardgame- or movie-night, you know?”, Noah said, when he was finished transforming his fingers into debris, bouncing off the table and splattering all over Gansey’s salad. “Adam doesn’t work late on Fridays and I think, Blue would also come over, if Adam or I ask her.” Ronan cackled out a mean laugh at the fact, that neither he nor Gansey would be a good argument for Blue to join them.

“That does sound like a good idea. I’ll drive by Adam’s home later and talk to him about it.”

 

\----------

 

It turned out it actually had been a good idea. Adam sat on the couch in Monmouth, one arm around Blue, while they watched Gansey trying to snatch a chesspiece from Chainsaw’s beak, who had recently started flying and now proudly showed off her new skill to all of them, delaying what Gansey had announced the highlight of their evening. Adam would have sworn he’d seen Ronan point to the now missing piece shortly before the raven had abducted it from the board.

Noah flopped down on the couch next to Adam, smiling openly. “You know, I’m glad your boss let you off the hook early today.”, he said. Ronan looked from Chainsaw to the three of them to find Adam mildly confused at the statement.

“He … didn’t. I didn’t work today after school.”, he corrected him.

Noah shrugged. “My bad. You’ve been drowning in work lately. How are you doing this?” Now Adam even seemed pretty uncomfortable, which Ronan turned out to be upset about. That was not what they had been going for and Noah knew that.

“I’m not… I’ve just been picking up shifts whenever I get the chance and study in the remaining time, but it’s not like I do this any more than usually, am I?” He turned to Blue, which again upset Ronan. What saying did she have in Adam’s time? She’s known him for what? Two months? Three? She hardly had anything to base her opinion on.

“Well, I think you do have kind of a tight schedule that’s not easy to infiltrate.”, Blue said. It could’ve sounded like an accusation, if it had come from anyone but her. She knew how demanding multiple jobs and school could be.

Ronan snorted. “Yeah, what else is new?”

“Aww, do you miss me?”, Adam asked sarcastically.

Ronan didn’t immediately answer. When he was being honest with himself -and he tried to always be-, he kind of, somehow, maybe did miss Parrish around. It had taken a while for him to accept Adam into their group, but now they felt … incomplete without him.

Gansey gave up chasing Chainsaw to jump in on the bickering with his truly out-of-place earnest: “We all do, Adam. You know that.” Adam was taken so aback by that, that he actually bushed a little. It was probably more than a little, but his tanned skin usually hid that really well. It took a while for him to snap out of that and when he did, it was because of Blue.

“Do you really think it’s fair to guilt-trip him into making time for you?”, she asked in a voice that made very clear that there was only one correct answer, which of course meant that Gansey’s answer could only be wrong or very wrong.

“Oh, here we go.” Noah had appeared next to Ronan’s ear, which made the latter jump.

“Christ, Noah! You still have your fucking feet! Use them, once in a while! Jesus!”, he snapped at him and the others stopped their bubbling fight to look at them.

“He did.”, Adam said, confused skepticism dragging his accent into his voice. “You just seemed a little zoned out. Is everything alright?” Shit, was he actually concerned?

“I’m fine. Just fucking tired of waiting for Dick to officially surrender to Chainsaw so we can skip watching you two play chess and start a movie.”

“You were staring~”, Noah silently hummed next to Ronan’s ear, which he chose to ignore.

Realiziation dawned on Gansey’s face. “You made her do that. You planned for that!” Blue laughed, Adam allowed himself a satisfied smile. “Et tu, Brute?”, Gansey actually added for drama, a very well executed betrayal painted all over his face.

“Okay, to throw some water on this fire, let’s choose a movie! Blue, what do you want to watch?”, Noah asked. Adam stared at him like he’d seen a ghost. Well, another one. A _scary_ one. Was Sargent’s taste in movies **that**  bad? Well, probably they now were up for some kind of bullshit documentary about feminism and emancipation, but instead of just demanding they look for anything on Netflix, Blue actually got up and stomped over to their small DVD- and Bluray-collection.

Ronan was sure she would not pick any of Gansey’s favorites and that meant they were probably safe. When she chose Jurassic World, he actually kind of liked her a little. They all settled around the couchtable, Blue leaning into Adam on the couch, Gansey with as much distance to her as possible next to them. Noah and Ronan sat on both sides of the table, Ronan leaning at the couch next to Gansey’s legs, Noah laid his head back a little, so Blue could absentmindedly comb through his hair, while they watched the two brothers wander through the park.

Along with the child on-screen, Noah provided a lot, no a **lot** of additional information about all the different kinds of dinosaurs that were mentioned, he got especially excited about the Mosasaurus. He got into a serious debate with Ronan about how to survive being thrown into it's tank.

“Oh, come ON! It would see you! You need to come up for air before it does! Adam, come on, back me up here!”, Noah begged.

“Huh? Sorry, I’m not half as much of an expert as you are.”, he said, obviously not comfortable with being dragged into their fight.

“Sure? I thought you might have an interesting point of view on that.”, Noah continued, now with a wicked smile that made Ronan feel incredibly proud of him. Adam didn’t seem to like whatever insider-game they were playing.

“Well, sorry to disappoint, but I don’t. Besides, it’s not that debatable, it’s a movie, after all. It’s not real.”

Noah shrugged. “Just because you don’t like it, doesn’t mean it’s not real.”

“That doesn’t make much sense, Noah.”

Ronan cut in to end their bickering. “So does most of the stuff Gansey talks about and we’re still out hunting for his magical king every other day.”

“Rude.”, was seemingly all Gansey had to say to this. He knew that Ronan didn’t mean it, so he let it go and leaned forward to grab his can of soda from the table and lifted it for a toast. “To everything nonsensical.”, he said, probably waiting for them to join in.

Ronan cocked an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t be sitting like that, if I were you.”, he warned, just in time before Chainsaw came out of nowhere to try and land on Gansey’s arm. He startled enough to let go of his can, spilling his drink over the couch, over Blue and over Adam, who legit looked like it wasn’t fanta, but acid, he’d just been sprinkled with.

“Lynch!”, Gansey scolded -Ronan wasn’t sure if he actually meant him or Chainsaw-, but Ronan was more interested in Blue’s reaction, as she had not been Gansey’s number one fan to begin with. He could practically see how a rude comment loaded, when Noah turned to Adam, who looked like he was about to have a panic attack.

“You should go wash that out.”, Noah said with a calm voice and pointed to the bathroomlaundryroomkitchen.

“Right.”, Adam choked out, like he had just now remembered how to speak, already jumping off the couch. He almost dragged Blue with him, as he didn’t take the time to properly detangle himself from her before taking off and would have knocked Noah out if he had been solid in that moment. He slammed and locked the bathroom-door behind him, just before the remaining people in the living room heard a dull _THUMP_ and a pained groan from inside.

Nobody really moved, except for staring at each other, before all eyes settled on Noah.

“The fuck?”, was Ronan’s undeniably reasonable first question.

Noah looked at everybody and shrugged. “You know how he gets, when something he bought for himself is ruined and that stuff sticks like hell.” He pointed at the can, that Gansey had completely forgotten to pick up when Adam had finally gone completely mad.

“Noah, that is certainly not an answer.” Ronan hated being lied to and it made him focus on Noah, who obviously knew what was really going on, so the first one to actually get up and knock on the bathroom-door, was Blue.

“Adam? You alright in there?” Now everyone looked at the door, like they could see right through it.

“Um… Yeah. I’ll just … wash the soda out, before it … dries.” Ronan would have sworn he’d heard Adam sigh before the last word.

“Did you fall down?”, Blue asked, an amazing balance between worry and confusion in her voice, that could only have its origin in growing up at 300 Fox Way.

A pause.

“Well, I…” Blue raised an eyebrow at the silence. “slipped. Guess I was too fast.”

“No fucking wonder. You raced in there like we keep free candy hidden under our towels.”

“Not funny, Lynch!” He sounded a little more like himself at last. Gansey had stood up and joined Blue in front of the door. He was about to ask something as another sound came from inside, like something decidedly lighter than a fully grown young man fell to the floor. Followed by a hushed “Shit!” from Adam.

“Is really everything okay?”, Gansey asked carefully.

“Peachy. Go watch that water-dinosaur eat everybody, I’ll be there in just a sec.”, Adam answered, clearly more irritated by Gansey asking than he had been by Blue.

Noah joined in from the couch, where he had taken Adam’s spot. At least Noah wouldn’t have to worry about getting his ghost-pants sticky from the soda-spill on the couch. “That’s not what happens.”, he said it a little like he was offended.

“Isn’t that what always happens?”

Noah laughed. “When you say it like that, it sounds like it should be a much more common problem.”

Ronan looked from Noah to the door, where Gansey und Blue both seemingly didn't want to be the first one to leave Adam alone. He felt like he was the only one left out on the joke and he didn’t like that.

“You two gonna stand in front of the bathroom for the rest of the evening like creepy stalkers or what?”, he asked Blue and Gansey. Blue looked furious, Gansey looked guilty.

“I’m sorry that I care about my friend, when he starts acting really fucking weird?”, Blue spat out, as she made her way back to the couch. “Wait, I take that back. I’m not sorry.”, she said.

Ronan snorted. Yeah, right, because the rest of them were so really fucking normal.

“He said he’s fine, so back off! You two don’t have to act like –“ He almost said _his_ “parents.”

Now Blue looked truly offended. With eyes narrowed in warning, she looked back at Gansey who stopped following her to the couch and settled for Noah’s spot on the floor. “We are **not**!”, she growled like a mountain lion. A very tiny, very angry mountain lion.

The click of the bathroom-door being unlocked pulled their attention back to Adam, who stuck his head out of the door. He looked stunningly uncomfortable. “Does one of you guys have a shirt to spare?”

Ronan looked at Blue. “Take one of Sargent’s. She wears like twenty at the same fucking time.” He caught the couchpillow she had thrown at him and made sure she saw how comfortable he was with the additional pillow.

“It’s called patchwork, dumbass, pick up a book once in a while.”

“Jane’s shirt wouldn’t fit anyway.”, Gansey intervened, like it had ever been a serious possibility that Adam wore Blue’s shirt. “I’ll give you one of mine.”

“Thank-“

“If you put on a polo-shirt, I’m breaking up with you.”, Blue said, not even the slightest hint of a joke in her voice and Adam looked startled. Whether it was because of the threat or the fact that Ronan had never actually heard him refer to Blue as his girlfriend, although they did all this disgusting couple-shit, Ronan could hardly bear to look at, he didn’t know. “Lynch, you’re up.”

He raised an eyebrow. “So you want me to get up, because you don’t like your boyfriend in -what is that you’re wearing, Dick? Spaceship-fishtank?”

Gansey cleared his throat. “Aquamarine.”, he said with a considerable amount of pride that seemed to make Blue want to vomit.

“I think, that would be **just** your colour.”, Noah said with an amused wink. Adam clenched his jaw.

“Ronan, please?”, he said, still just a head in the bathroom-door.

Ronan thought he could see an urge in Adam’s expression, that he could somehow relate to. He thought of his bracelets and how conveniently they hid his scars and then he got up with a troubled moan that a guy with his age and his money and his amount of time should not be capable of.

He went to his room, picked up a random muscle shirt from the top of his drawer and threw it at Adam’s face. “Thank you.”, he said muffled against the black fabric. For a moment he vanished behind the door again, then came out with Ronan’s shirt on. Everyone except Ronan looked at him, which he didn’t seem to like. “Is it that bad?”, he hesitated to ask and that made Ronan look up.

The shirt sat a little loosely at his chest, as Ronan was broader, well-nourished, but he certainly had the muscles to sport a shirt like that. Of course. He worked at a factory and at a garage, so why wouldn’t he, but still it usually got lost in his overall gauntness. Ronan spotted a faint scar at his shoulder, peeking out from under the top, and he felt a little bad, that he had not given him a t-shirt like Adam always wore them when he didn’t have fresh bruises to hide. Obviously, the conversation had continued, because now everyone was looking at Ronan, so he just shrugged, while Adam now took Gansey’s place on the couch -carefully avoiding the wet spots.

Noah leaned closer to him and whisper in his ear: “You were staring again~”

Ronan swatted at him like at a mosquito and un-paused the movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it xD
> 
> Next up: An Adam-chapter. Finally we'll get some detail on the daily life of a Henrietta-merman <3  
> I hope I'll be as fast as I was with this chapter, but no promises.


	3. Morning routine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He got into the shower and turned it on -out of a habit. He had been tired enough to forget how small their shower was and when he realized, it was already too late. “No! Shit, no!”, he almost begged, but it was no use. Even though he immediately turned the water off again, he could feel his legs transform and knocked the cheap plastic doors of the shower open when he fell. 
> 
> \-----------
> 
> Poor Adam has to completely re-learn his morning routine. Also he definitely doesn't have time for this shit. Now that's something new...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for your amazing amount of feedback! I'm not used to this and it is the absolute best thing in the world, thank you!

Adam’s Saturday started earlier than usual. In the back of his mind he already suspected that this would become his new “usual”. The different morning routine now, with his … condition was exhausting, but Adam Parrish was used to exhausting. This was just another inconvenience and he would deal with it like with everything else. Because he had to. Because Noah had been right: Just because he didn’t like it, didn’t mean it wasn’t real.

Thankfully, after their movie-night, his first shift on Saturday didn’t start until 1pm, so he had some time to get ready and study a little more for his exams before he had to leave. The first thing he did, was check the weather. Clear sky. Good. Then he checked his alarm. It wouldn’t go off for another 30 minutes, but he was awake, so he could just as well get up now. His father would have already left the trailer for work, so Adam was alone with his mother.

Sleepily -the previous evening still weighing him down- he dragged himself into the small bathroom, where he stripped out of his pajama pants and the shirt he’d slept in. He allowed himself a short look into the mirror to inspect the part of his elbow he couldn’t see on his own, no matter how much he danced around himself. It was dark purple where he had hit the floor in Gansey’s bathroom yesterday.

Adam was used to this. To look at his body, spotting just another mark, but seeing this didn’t hurt like it did with the others. It would have been funny, what happened yesterday, if he hadn’t been so terrified of getting caught. Nobody must know about this, he told himself again. He didn’t need help, he didn’t need the others to look at him funny. He already was so very different from them as he was. He didn’t need something like a freaking fishtail to prove that.

He cast another look at the bruise, then got into the shower and turned it on -out of a habit. He had been tired enough to forget how small their shower was and when he realized, it was already too late. “No! Shit, no!”, he almost begged, but it was no use. Even though he immediately turned the water off again, he could feel his legs transform and knocked the cheap plastic doors of the shower open when he fell. Instinctively, he tried to catch himself, leading to him falling on the exact same spot again. He bit on his lip to keep quiet when he heard footsteps outside the door. He had locked it, right?!

His mother tried the door handle, then knocked. “Adam? What are you doing in there?!” She didn’t sound like Blue and Gansey had, yesterday. Worried. She sounded angry. Maybe a little scared, but that was not because she worried about her son, he knew. It was because she didn’t want her husband to find out their son had broken the shower. Luckily, he hadn’t. The door looked a little crooked, but he was sure he could fix it.

“I tripped.”, he said loud enough. “Sorry, mom.” He tried to sit up, so he could reach a towel and dry himself off so he would change back to normal. The bathroom in their trailer was as small and cramped as one would expect it to be and the towels, of course, were stored where his father wouldn’t have to go digging for them, unlike his mother’s cleaning supplies. The only towel he could reach was hanging next to the sink and it was about half the size of a napkin.

“Is everything alright?”, she asked and for a moment, Adam allowed himself to believe she meant him. He had understood what his place in this family was and he knew better than to lie to himself about it, but it was harder now. For the last two weeks, the wish for a family like he knew many of his friends had, had grown stronger again… A family he could trust this secret with, that not even his friends were to learn about.

Then the moment passed and Adam forced himself not to dwell on that thought. He had accepted his family, had forbidden himself to wish for anything else, because wishful thinking wouldn’t get him anywhere. This realization was one of the pillars he’d built his life upon and he wouldn’t let his newfound need for comfort tear it down. “Yeah, nothing happened.”, he told her and she left.

Adam took a deep breath, before he looked down to where his legs should be. Pitying himself about his condition, as he called it, wouldn’t be anything more than just a waste of time, but even after two weeks, he was still not used to having a fin. Was that even something you could get used to?!

The wide-spread, mostly transparent fin was soft and wrinkled. It looked different from the rest of the thin, long tail it was attached to, that started halfway from his belly button to his most private area. It was smooth like silk, unlike the tail with its thousands of little, shiny scales. Adam had tugged carefully at the skin of it, it was firmer that it looked like, but reminding himself of its purpose, this just seemed logical.  He had similar skin at the sides of his tail, looking like wavy, elegant combs of hair in the water and like useless wet fabric on dry land, and one of these combs reached from the center of his back to where he usually had knees. It was irritatingly uncomfortable to sit on, so Adam usually lay on one side of his hips.

Adam ran a hand over the scales -always down from his hips, never against the grain-, pushing his fingertips softly down to feel how the thick skin of the tail adjusted to his pressure. He almost couldn’t feel the scales’ outlines, his fingers much more used to rough edges and ignorant to the delicate net of his new exterior.

What had fascinated him from the first time he’d seen his tail two weeks ago, back in Cabeswater, was the color of its scales. The fin was a light, pale blue, depending on how many wrinkles lay on top of each other. It looked like chiffon, darker on a solid ground, lighter when it was held up against the sky. The scales were solid, but that didn’t make them any easier to classify. Even now in the dimly lit bathroom, it seemed that each and every one of them were a different shade of blue. In the sun, he knew, they would reflect the light like a fishy, blue disco ball. What a useless gimmick, he thought cynically and pulled his hand away.

He shoved himself over the floor to get the small towel from the sink -better than nothing- and started drying himself with it. It didn’t take too long before he had legs again, so he could prepare his real routine: He hung his towel and washcloth next to the sink, grabbed his body wash from the shower (carefully avoiding touching anything wet) and sat down on the put down toilet-seat, from where he could easily reach the sink.

The whole procedure of washing himself and drying off didn’t take more than ten minutes, but he felt like it had been half an hour, compared to his usual shower-routine. He put everything back so nothing would seem odd and went back to his room to change, bevor he got himself a small breakfast and started studying.

It took Adam about half an hour to figure out that he could hardly concentrate or rather it took him half an hour to finally admit it. His eyes were sliding off of his history-paper to the plastic bottle he had filled with tap-water. He felt curiosity pull his interest from the French Revolution to something he had not yet allowed him to focus on. Soon after he first got the tail, he had discovered he had … powers. It had been the stream of the sink shying away from his touch, when he was afraid to touch it, transform and hurt himself. It had been a cold soda-can his boss had tossed him one day at work, that had heated up while Adam focused on an engine that should be working but wasn’t, to a point where Adam couldn’t even hold it in his hands any longer without burning it. And, unfortunately, it had been a frozen kitchen sink. His father had tried to fix it all evening and the next day, it had just started working again. Robert could not have known who was to blame for that, but he never made a big mystery of who he would take it out on.

It hadn’t taken Adam long to put everything together and he caught himself enjoying the thought of being powerful. It was a word he had never used for himself. Only something he was hungry for.

The problem was: He was not sure how to control it and it was nothing he could just look up in the next book. The Aglionby library sadly didn’t have a “Mermaid 101”, if he was to call it like that, which he refused to as much as he could. He lived in Virginia, not far from the mountains. In a place covered in dirt, to hide it from anything magical, mystical or beautiful. He sure as hell wasn’t a fucking _mermaid_!

Again, his gaze stopped at the bottle. He wanted to know, what he was capable of, how to control it, but for now, it didn’t look like he was going to lose those powers any time soon, but the exams were a deadline. School was a deadline and he couldn’t afford to become familiar with his new reality right now. He had to push it aside for as long as he had to. Priorities, Adam, he reminded himself. First school, then the jobs, then the … condition.

He looked at his watch. Still a lot of time, when he hurried with his paper, but he needed to push the powers off his mind. He looked back at the bottle. Maybe, he could try to take this literally and push the bottle off of his desk without touching it? And then not think about again until he had the time for it? He had already figured out he needed to use his fingers as well as his mind, so he held up his hand, bent his fingers a little and focused on the water inside the bottle. He tried to reach out for it without moving, but the irrational concept wasn’t easy on his rational mind.

It didn’t help to close his eyes. It didn’t help to steady his breath or sit up even straighter than he had been. It didn’t help trying the other hand. He was just an idiot, pointing his fingers to a water bottle, not getting anything done. With a sudden rush of anger, he closed his hand to a fist, inhaling sharply to focus on his paper again, when the water reacted. It started with small bubbles on the ground of the bottle, which then quickly grew bigger until the water was boiling.

Adam was so surprised, that he almost forgot to react. The lid was not very tightly screwed onto the bottle as he was using it frequently, so when the water started rising inside, Adam -of course- mildly panicked. There were two options: Get everything paper out of the way **now**  or open the window and throw the bottle out before it exploded, probably flooding his desk, parts of his floor and last but not least, himself. He would instantly be useless again, so he threw himself at the window, grabbed the bottle with one hand, jerking the window open with the other. He let go of the bottle right before it started spilling and couldn’t help but stare as the water tore its way through the plastic.

He did this. He was powerful. He was something different and right now, he didn’t have the time to be either of this. With a considerable amount of effort, he dragged his gaze from the bottle, ignoring the weird look the neighbor’s wife gave him, and settled back in front of his desk. This first, then work, then ... everything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: A little more action again. Adam on his own is too reasonable for this xD  
> Not to spoil or anything, but do you guys remember the full moon-episodes?


	4. The full moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suddenly, he was calm. The buzzing stopped, everything tense in him eased just at the sight of the moon. He knew, what he had been longing for all day. All throughout yesterday: Cabeswater. With all his mind, all his body, he needed to get to the pond, in which he had almost drowned exactly one month ago. He turned around to leave -no matter that Ronan was already driving off or that his bike was still at Monmouth, he would walk there if he had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, storytime:  
> I literally started this, because I asked Ritsu, what I should write. And she said: Hunger Games AU. And I was like: Yeah, cool, but that sounds like a long project. Maybe something for in between?  
> And this was supposed to be short and funny and we were joking so much about all the details for this and then I wrote this chapter and I'm like...  
> Ooops.
> 
> So, this is ... a little darker than the last chapters. I added some tags and we're meeting the Canon-timeline again for the worst night in the book. Enjoy, but be advised!

It had been a quiet two weeks since their movie-night and the weather seemed to be on Adam’s side for the most of it. Either it was sunny or the rain came down at night or when he was at work, so he managed pretty well to get from a to b. By now, he started to feel suspicious of how easy it was to hide what had happened to him. Or maybe that was just the best explanation he had for feeling so restless all day. It had started yesterday. He caught himself pacing in his room, unconcentrated at work and even at school to the point where he actually had been asked a question twice by a teacher, before he could react. That had never happened to him before and he could feel judging eyes on him. Or maybe that was his imagination.

“Adam?” Someone snapped his fingers in front of Adam’s face and when he looked up, he saw Gansey staring at him expectantly. Shit, had he been talking to him?

“Yes?”, Adam asked, trying not to look overly confused. He shot a glance at Noah and Ronan, who both didn’t seem involved in the conversation. Ronan was had his elbow on the table, his chin in his palm and the strings of his bracelets in his mouth. Noah watched him.

“I asked you if everything was alright.”, Gansey said, his voice soft and full of worry. “You were staring into the void like...” Gansey’s eyes hushed over Noah across the table and back to Adam. “Is something bothering you?”

Adam swallowed his paranoid feelings of Gansey somehow **knowing** , what was actually wrong and acted like the question was completely uncalled for. “What? No. I’m fine.”

Gansey didn’t buy it, neither did Ronan, judging from his sharp snort. He didn’t bother joining in with something a little more like words.

“You sure? You seem a little… distracted today.”

“So?”, Adam asked. There was more ice to his voice than needed to be, but he wanted to make Gansey drop it. Needed to.

“So, that’s just … unsusal.” He looked to Noah and Ronan as if looking for their support. Adam just cocked an eyebrow and motioned at Ronan like he made a point. “For you.”, Gansey added. “Unusual for you. Is it…” He hesitated, visibly uncomfortable, which irritated Adam even more. Gansey could not have guessed what had happened to him, right? He couldn’t!

“What?”, he cut in, his heart racing.

“Is it your dad? Did something … happen last night?”, Gansey finally found the courage to ask.

Adam looked at him in surprise. It took him a moment to react, hoping he at least looked caught, so he could drop this topic the way he usually did. From the corner of his eye, he saw Ronan had stilled. The leather still in his mouth, but he had stopped actively chewing on it.

“No. I’m fine, everything’s fine, okay?”, he hissed at Gansey, a little sorry for the heat, but it didn’t even work.

“Please, Adam. Talk to us.”

“Gansey…”, Adam started, but Ronan cut him off before he could say something that would definitely start a fight.

“Drop it, Dick, he said he’s fine.” Ronan still didn’t grace them with his attention, but just stared into another direction, resuming to work at the leather with his teeth.

“But-“

“He’s probably just dreaming of the world above.”, Noah joined. Gansey and Adam both looked at him with the same tense, but puzzled faces.

“Excuse me?”, Adam asked with what would have been utter offense, had this assumption come from any other Aglionby-Boy than Noah.

Noah shrugged and started to hum a light, ascending melody, smiling like he had made the best inside-joke.

Adam waited for him to add anything to explain his guess, but when he didn’t, he stood up and grabbed his bag. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”, he said, still with a certain chill to his voice.

“Are you going home?!”, Gansey asked in shock, Ronan finally looked up.

“No, of course not. I’m going to my literature-class, that none of you share.”, he said like it was obvious. Because it really was. He threw the crumbled brown paper bag into the trash, in that he had brought his dry sandwich, and left his friends behind in the cafeteria.

 

Gansey looked after him, then turned around to the remaining others. “What was that?”, he asked.

Ronan shrugged. “That was Adam not taking being interrogated.”, he said and stretched his arms behind his bag. “And you know what? I think when **he** ’s not gonna do it, then **I** will go home.”

“Ronan, no.”, Gansey started, but Ronan was already raising, his mind obviously made up.

“Ronan, yes.”, he simply said and Noah stopped humming to giggle. “I’ll come with you.”, he said.

Gansey let out a sigh. “Can I really not convince you to stay?”, he asked hopelessly.

Ronan lay a hand on his shoulder and took a deep breath, acting like it was the hardest thing he’d done all day to say: “You really fucking can’t.” He patted Gansey’s shoulder once, then went past him, Noah on his heels.

**\----------**

The next day, Adam pedaled to Monmouth after work, with the distinct feeling that something was actually wrong with him. More than just him turning into- He still didn’t want to name it. He had snapped at Gansey yesterday for worrying. Yes, that was old news, but Gansey had been right. He **was** distracted. But why?

Was it the Ley Line-thing? That they now knew that they could probably actually wake it? That they could make actual progress on their search for Glendower? That sounded more like a Gansey-thing to be excited about, not an Adam-thing. Besides, they were still pretty clueless about what kind of a sacrifice or ritual they needed and how to pull it off.

Was it the upcoming exams? But he was prepared for most of them and by the time he had to take them he would be ready for all of them. He had a tight schedule, but it would all work out. He was sure of that.

Had Gansey been right? Was it his dad? To be fair, he feared his father since he had turned seven and not a single day went by where he wasn’t at some point reminded of that, but right now, that wasn’t it. His father was a monster he was usually able to keep on a leash during school. Even more, when it had been a while since the last … incident. He shook his head at himself for calling it that.

At Monmouth he secured his bike under the stairs and went straight up. The door wasn’t locked, so he just entered and looked around for Gansey. They wanted to use their day off from school to study together, Adam remembered, but Gansey wasn’t there.

“Gansey?”, Adam tried, but no one answered. Instead, Ronan’s door opened and Chainsaw came flying towards Adam. He ducked, she missed him, turned around and landed on his shoulder. Adam winced at her talons dug into his skin. “Hey there…”, he said and carefully started stroking one finger over her feathers, when Ronan followed his bird into the room.

 “Parrish.”, he said so Adam looked up. “Dick’s not in.”

Adam furrowed his brows, but didn’t stop petting Chainsaw. “He’s not? We wanted to study.”

Ronan crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the doorway. “Sorry to break it to you, but he’s at his mom’s for her birthday.”

“But the Pig was…” His voice trailed off, when he realized that he actually hadn’t seen the Camaro parked out front. “Oh...” Why hadn’t he told him? Wait. Probably he had and Adam just had been too busy buzzing with something he didn’t even understand. Was that the only kind of crucial information he had missed? Had he been spacing out for longer than just the past two days? He sighed and pushed a hand through his messy hair. Ronan cocked an eyebrow.

“You okay?”, he asked and Adam took a moment to think about what he could answer.

“Yeah, I think.”, he said and looked around. “Well, I’ll leave you to whatever important thing I interrupted and just go-“

Ronan interrupted him. “You can study here anyway. It’s not like there’s not enough room or something. Besides, I can’t just let you walk away with that fucking bird on your shoulder. People would stare.”

Adam looked at him and for just a moment, he actually forgot about the itching and the pacing and the horrible feeling of being stressed by something he just couldn’t wrap his head around. “I can take them staring when I’m out with you guys, I think I can handle it.”

“Who’s talking about you?”, Ronan scoffed with a wolfish grin. “She’s fucking sensible.”

“Oh, right.”, Adam deadpanned, lacking a clever answer he might have thrown right back at Ronan if he was more himself right now. Ronan seemed to catch up on that, but he didn’t ask again. Instead, he just shrugged and pushed himself off the doorway.

“Well, knock yourself out. His casa es su casa or whatever.”, he said with a boredom in his voice that must have taken years to perfect, before he disappeared into his room, leaving the door a little open for Chainsaw, who actually took after him, just as he vanished. Adam felt relief wash over him. Studying here was much better than at home. Even if he still felt restless, he felt a little less on edge in here and he appreciated that. He could actually get some things done here.

And then came Blue.

And then they all met at 300 Fox Way, when Gansey had almost been shot by Whelk.

And then Ronan drove Adam home and they sat in the car, because Adam didn’t want to get out. The whole afternoon, he had only felt worse. With every passing minute, the nervous feeling had grown stronger, peaking now, that he sat next to Ronan in the safety of the BMW, looking at the trailer, seeing his dad pacing behind the window. He felt himself tense up, his body not responding to his repeated order to _calm the fuck down._ It was not just his dad. He knew it. Something completely different shadowed over all of his thoughts, a longing, but he just couldn’t make himself see for what and it was driving him crazy.

Ronan spoke first. “You don’t have to get back there.”, he said, his voice a careful, well-crafted indifference that made his obvious worry so much different from Gansey’s. Still it drove him down the same path any advice or question or offer from Gansey would have. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

“Thanks for the ride.”, he said and got out. Every step felt more difficult than the one before, his feet growing heavier, the closer he got the trailer. He wasn’t supposed to be here right now. The thought was so clear, so simple and Adam didn’t even question it, although it was past curfew and he was by all means supposed to be in his room by now!

He didn’t make it to the door before his father had, a beer still in his hand, a look that could kill and words on his lips, that Adam did not hear. He had halfway turned around on the steps leading to the Parrish-front door, the pull in his mind becoming unbearable, but he froze mid-turn when the full moon peaked out behind a cloud.

Suddenly, he was calm. The buzzing stopped, everything tense in him eased just at the sight of the moon. He knew, what he had been longing for all day. All throughout yesterday: Cabeswater. With all his mind, all his body, he needed to get to the pond, in which he had almost drowned exactly one month ago. He turned around to leave -no matter that Ronan was already driving off or that his bike was still at Monmouth, he would walk there if he had to.

A rough hand at his shoulder stopped him and forced him to turn back around. “Are you deaf, boy? Look at me, when I’m talking to you!”, his father spat at him, mad with rage and furious about his son’s blank expression. Adam couldn’t care less, he had a purpose.

“Let go of me.”, he said, calm and indifferent. It managed to surprise his father enough so Adam could push the hand off his shoulder. Not enough so he didn’t immediately grab at his arm, harsh and with the intend to hurt.

“Who do you think you are!?”, Robert shouted. He lifted the near empty beer bottle up, Adam reacted on instinct. Full-on merman-instinct. He jerked his free, right hand up in front of his face, bent his fingers and didn’t even have to concentrate. He felt the liquid inside the bottle like he had been born with his powers. It was a reflex, now that the light of the full moon had swept everything unnecessary from his mind.

The bottle froze instantly and shattered to a million tiny pieces of ice in Robert’s violent grip. It rained down to the floor, dusting the floor of the trailer, as well as the steps with glittering, green crushed ice. Robert’s fist closed around nothing and smashed unrestrained into Adam’s head, shoving him back half a step, where his worn-out sneakers lost their grip on the ice and Adam fell.

He remembered his head hitting the railing of the stairs. He remembered laying in the dust in front of the stairs. He didn’t remember anything in between.

Everything hurt, his body from the fall, his head from the punch and the railing. His vision was blurred and everything was spinning, but he saw his father’s boots coming down the stairs. He heard him yell. He heard bits and words, nothing that made sense, but his father was beyond furious.

Adam tried to get up, the calm surety of the moonlight gone, his head a dull roar of pain, confusion and feeling utterly powerless.

A kick to the shoulder. Adam groaned in pain, losing every bit of orientation he had regained in the last seconds. He curled himself up on the floor to protect himself, a futile, hopeless try, that much he knew from experience, but the only thing he felt capable of right now.

He waited for another kick. Or for his father to pick him up by the collar, shouting at him, pulling him up so he could push him down again.

Nothing happened. There was another voice. Ronan. Adam couldn’t make out a single word, all the sounds were blended together, mixing to something worse than anything he had heard Ronan’s radio play. Ever.

Again, Adam tried to lift himself up. He made it to one elbow, the other hand pressed flat on the ground. He saw flashes of light, flashes of silhouettes, then everything went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, here we are. First full moon wasn't half as easy as it was in the show, I promise, there's gonna be a funny one! But for now, let my sail my dramatanic.
> 
> I really hope you like this chapter, even if it's completely different from the first three. Next up also won't be that much fluff, but we'll get back there! I promise!


End file.
